Alternative and biofuel stocks are having an excellent, if somewhat unheralded year a little over one quarter of the way through 2014.
Indeed, despite all the rapt attention being paid to rig counts as a result of the US “shale boom,” a look at the top 10 performers on the NASDAQ exchange so far this year, irrespective of sector or industry, shows that no less that six of them are alternative fuel businesses:
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Diversified electronics firm Plug Power Inc. (PLUG) is the exchange’s number-one performing stock year-to-date, up 372 percent to $7.32 per share.
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Specialty chemicals companies: BioFuel Energy Corp. (BIOF) is number two, up 351 percent to $7.72 per share; Pacific Ethanol Inc. (PEIX) is number seven, up 189 percent to $14.73; Synthesis Energy Systems Inc. (SYMX) is number 8, up 183 percent to $1.70.
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Industrial electrical equipment stock Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLDP) is number 10, up 148 percent to $3.78.
So far, that’s only five stocks. The sixth one is the sixth-best NASDAQ performer of 2014, namely Florida’s "major integrated oil & gas" microcap MagneGas Corporation (MNGA) whose shares have gained 209 percent to $1.36 a piece.
While all of these companies are trying to make a living off of what constitutes a diverse array of innovative clean and/or reusable energy technology, MagneGas stands out, particularly given how relatively overlooked the stock remains, and how versatile its namesake product is.
Indeed, the company’s fuel can be made out of a variety of different waste materials including those that are the byproducts of industrial production, oil and gas production, and, of course, plain old manure.
The following video harkens back to 2006, and the final dying gasps of the televised public domain, when your “local cable provider” was required to make at least one channel available for public use at no cost. The video was made about a year before MagneGas’s incorporation, and is comprised of an interview with entrepreneur Ron Cole, who happened upon the company as a result of his previous work as a reactor operator for the US Navy. It’s a fascinating bit of what might very well be history in the making, and includes a demonstration of how MagneGas’s early product actually works.
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